Sirius Revelations
by jokerswyld
Summary: What would have happened if instead of falling backwards over his trunk and summoning the Knight Bus, Harry met his godfather before his third year at Hogwarts? What truths would be revealed by the man who had been imprisoned for twelve years?
1. Prologue

The faint light in the darkness caused the man to stir. Lying curled up on the cold stone floor, wrapped in the ratty old blanket that served as his bedding, he turned his head stiffly to look out of the barred cell door. Light was almost unknown in this hellish place. The jailers didn't need it to do their job, and the few humans who staffed the prison very rarely ventured down to the deep cells for any reason except to verify a prisoner's death.

With difficulty, the man sat up and rested his back against one of the rough stone walls and watched as the light slowly made its way up the corridor in the direction of his cell. Now as he focused his attention on the light, he could hear voices too. These stood out from the normal whimpering, moaning and screaming which made the now unnoticed background noises. They were the voices of people who were accustomed to using them to talk regularly every day.

Long minutes passed as the light and voices slowly made their way steadily closer. After a time, the man came to recognize one of the approaching voices. Although there were now some things he forgot after spending close to twelve years in Azkaban, the voice of the man who had sent him there without a trial was not one of them.

The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, did not like having to come to Azkaban for the yearly inspection. He always needed a good stiff drink or two before and after his visits. It was beyond his imagining how the people who worked here on a daily basis managed it. He had to give them a lot of credit though, for doing a job that not many people were willing to do no matter how good the pay was. Shivering as he was led into the highest security area located on the second deepest level of the prison, Minister Fudge wasn't paying much attention until the warden, who was leading the two person inspection party, pointed to the man's cell.

"And here's a face you're sure to remember Minister. You sent him straight to me right quick after they caught him. I don't seem to recall that there was much of a trial for him either," the warden said quietly to Fudge as he held out a hand expectantly.

"Yes, right," mumbled Fudge as he handed over a folder piece of paper. "I'm sure that you'll find everything is in order there, just like it has been for the last eleven years. Let's move on shall we? We shouldn't linger down here."

"There's only us and Black in his cell there, Minister. It's funny though, out of everyone down here, he's lasted the longest and is still fairly sane compared to everyone else," the warden said as he examined the Gringotts bank draft that he now held.

"Yes, yes," Fudge said hastily as he stared uneasily at Black's cell and fidgeted with the newspaper he held rolled up by his side. "That's all well and good. Can we just hurry up and leave?"

"Certainly Minister," replied the warden. "We can go back to my office and discuss the year's budget."

"Anything you like. Let's just get going," agreed Fudge.

As the two turned to leave, the man in the cell, Sirius Black, struggled to his feet and leaned weakly against the cell door.

"The paper, please," Sirius said in a raspy voice. "Could I see the paper? Just to know what year it is."

"Here," said the Minister and tossed the paper at the cell door.

As the two men walked away, Sirius reached out and grabbed the paper from off of the stone floor in front of his cell. Unrolling it quickly to take advantage of the fading light, he glanced at the front page to see a large family smiling and waving at him from the picture there. He was about to turn the page when he noticed a rat sitting on the youngest boy's shoulder. Taking a closer look, he gasped in surprise and anger as he spotted the rat's front paw. It only had four toes.

"He's at Hogwarts," rasped Sirius quietly. "That traitor is at Hogwarts."

Anger started to overwhelm him, and Sirius began to pace back and forth in his small cell. Thoughts of revenge were all he had until a single stray memory made its way to the front of his mind. A small, laughing, black haired, green eyed boy. Then a name surfaced in his thoughts. Harry.

Suddenly, another sensation began to overwhelm him. A feeling of cold and unhappiness was making its way down the corridor. With these new thoughts of Harry in his mind, Sirius acted quickly, and in seconds a large but thin and starved looking black dog stood where he had just been. Crouching in a corner, he waited for the dementor to come.

He didn't have long to wait. The dementor, sensing these new happier thoughts coming from Black's cell, hurried down the corridor to feed. It reached Black's cell and opened the door to allow itself access, but stopped in confusion as the sense of a person in the cell diminished. Turning away slowly, the dementor missed seeing the black dog slip out of the opened door and start inching its way up the corridor the way Fudge and the Warden had went. Closing the door, the dementor decided to make its rounds of the prisoners now while it was here.

Following the scent of people, the dog slowly made his way up through the levels of the prison. Whenever he felt dementors, he found whatever shadows he could and hid there until they had passed. Hours later, the smell of fresher air led him to a small barred window that was just above the rocky ground outside. Painfully, he squeezed himself between the bars and clawed his way out of their grasp. Panting after the struggle, the dog stood on the rocky ground of the island of Azkaban in the faint gray light before dawn.

Keeping hidden, the dog made his way to the water's edge. He didn't know how long it would take to swim, but he was determined to make it so that he could see Harry and get the traitor.


	2. Chapter 1

AN: I forgot to add the disclaimer to the prologue. Can you ever forgive me?!

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the HP universe. This is a work of fan fiction intended for my enjoyment and hopefully yours.

"COME BACK IN HERE!" he bellowed. "COME BACK AND PUT HER RIGHT!"

But a reckless rage had come over Harry. He kicked his trunk open, pulled out his wand and pointed at Uncle Vernon.

"She deserved it," Harry said, breathing very fast. "She deserved what she got. You keep away from me."

He fumbled behind him for the catch on the door.

"I'm going," Harry said. "I've had enough."

And next moment, he was out in the dark, quiet street, heaving his heavy trunk behind him, Hedwig's cage under his arm.

Harry was several streets away before he collapsed onto a low wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging his trunk. He sat quite still, anger still surging through him, listening to the frantic thumping of his heart.

A funny prickling on the back of his neck had made Harry feel he was being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.

He bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. He had sensed rather than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind him. Harry squinted at the black alleyway. If only it would move, then he'd know whether it was just a stray cat or – something else.

"_Lumos_," Harry muttered, and a light appeared at the end of his wand, almost dazzling him. He held it high over his head, and the pebble-dashed walls of number two suddenly sparkled; the garage door gleamed, and between them, Harry saw, quite distinctly, the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.

Harry took half a step back and felt his foot bump into his trunk as the large dog took a step forward out of the shadow and stood with its head clearly in the wand's light. With its tongue hanging out of its mouth in friendly fashion, the dog slowly lowered itself to the ground and inched its way forward out into the light.

Once it was lying on grass in front of Harry, the dog gave a whine and began to wag its tail.

"Are you a run-away like me?" asked Harry as he lowered his wand and knelt down beside the dog to pet it. "No one wants you either?"

The dog let Harry pet him a few times before he suddenly stood up and started to walk away. After a short distance, the dog stopped and turned to look back at Harry.

"You want me to come with you?" Harry asked the dog, and gasped when he saw the dog nod its head in response.

"You're not an ordinary dog, are you," said Harry as he pointed his wand towards the dog, and watched as the dog shook its head.

"Just what are you then?" asked Harry as he tightened his grip on his wand.

Backing up a few more steps, the dog sat on the grass and seemed to shimmer. Harry gasped as he watched the large black dog change into a man dressed in tattered clothing with long unkempt black hair framing his gaunt face.

"Hello Harry," the man said in a raspy voice as he eyed the boy standing in front of him.

"How do you know me and who are you?" asked Harry warily as he too eyed the men sitting on the ground in front of him.

"I don't want to scare you Harry," said the man. "I don't mean you any harm, despite what you might have heard. My name is Sirius Black."

Eyes widening in recognition, Harry went white as he regarded the man that he had seen on the television four days ago. Sirius Black was an escaped convict and was extremely dangerous.

"Please Harry, you must believe me, I am not going to harm you," said Sirius, sounding almost desperate. "I can prove this if you will let me. Keep your wand pointed at me and follow me to the park. I have what I need hidden there. I trust that you know a spell to incapacitate me if I should do anything suspicious."

"I do," Harry said somewhat nervously. "Now why do we have to go to the park? What is there that you can't show me here?"

"Memories, Harry," Sirius said sadly. "I have something there that I can show you my memories with. Please, we need to hurry."

"Alright," agreed Harry as he reached down with his free hand to grab his trunk. "You lead the way."

Standing slowly, Sirius took another long look at Harry before he turned and started walking towards the little park at the end of the street. Following behind, Harry noticed how thin Sirius was and saw that it seemed to be all he could do to keep walking.

After a few minutes, Sirius led Harry into the park and over to a group of small shrubs. Bending down, he began moving branches out of the way as he searched for something. Stopping suddenly, he turned his head to regard Harry standing behind him.

"I'm going to pull two things out of here," said Sirius. "The first is a wand which I will set on the ground between us. The second thing will look like a stone bowl. It's called a pensive and is used to view memories."

Still moving slowly, but deliberately, Sirius first pulled a wand out from under the concealing branches and true to his word, set it on the grass between himself and Harry. Reaching back in to the shrubs again, Sirius grunted as he lifted out a greenish-grey stone bowl and set it on the ground beside his wand.

"Now, to do this Harry, I'm going to need to use my wand," Sirius said. "I will touch the tip to my forehead and extract the memories. They will look like wispy silvery blobs. I'll then place them in the pensive and set my wand back on the ground."

"Alright, go ahead," said Harry as he lowered his wand a bit. "You've been as good as your word so far."

Smiling at the boy, Sirius picked up his wand and held the tip to his forehead. A look of extreme concentration passed across his face before he moved the wand away. Harry watched in fascination as something silvery was drawn out and dangled from the wand's tip. Placing the silvery blob into the pensive, Sirius repeated the process two more times before he again set his wand down on the grass beside the pensive.

"Before you look at these memories, could you tell me how much you know about what happened on that night when your parents were killed?" asked Sirius. "And do you know anything about me?"

"I know my parents were killed by Voldemort," Harry said. "When he tried to kill me something happened and he died while I got this scar. As for you, I only just heard on the news that you're an escaped convict and that you're dangerous."

"No one ever told you the details?" Sirius asked incredulously. "No one told you that your parents were in hiding. That Voldemort was after them because of a prophecy dealing with you."

"They were in hiding? Because of a prophecy? About me?!" asked Harry, getting louder with each question. "Who knew about this and why wouldn't anyone tell me anything?"

"Dumbledore knew the prophecy and he knew that Voldemort would be coming after your parents so he hid them with a spell," began Sirius sadly. "Your father told me the small part of the prophecy that Dumbledore had told him."

"Why would he tell you?" Harry asked as he sank to the grass and sat opposite Sirius. "Why would he tell a criminal?

"I wasn't a criminal then Harry," said Sirius quietly, "and I'm not one now. I was never given a trial and was never allowed to speak in my own defense. And the reason that your parents told me was because when you were born, they named me your godfather."

Nothing Sirius could have said would have shocked Harry more. He had always wanted someone who he could consider his real family. He had prayed for it when he was locked up in the cupboard under the stairs. And now here was someone claiming to be his godfather.

"It's a lot to take in, I know, and you probably find it hard to believe," began Sirius. "But please, let me show you these memories now Harry. They will hopefully clear things up for you."

"How?" asked Harry, who was still looking stunned.

"You just have to place a finger into the pensive and you will be drawn into the memories. I'll do it with you at the same time," Sirius explained.

Nodding, Harry reached out with his free hand and dipped a finger into the pensive. His movements were mirrored by Sirius, and a second later, Harry found himself standing beside Sirius outside of a small house somewhere out in the country. Looking around, Harry gasped as he saw his parents standing in front of the house along with a younger looking Sirius, Professor Dumbledore, and a short stocky man with a twitchy looking nose.

"We're in the memory now Harry," said Sirius. "Dumbledore is about to cast a spell to hide you and your parents. The spell is called the Fidelius Charm. It hides the knowledge of a location inside the soul of a single living being. The only way for the place to be found is for the secret keeper to tell where it is. Your father wanted me to be the secret keeper, but I suggested that they use Peter instead as I would be the most obvious choice and would therefore make a good diversion. Dumbledore quickly agreed and persuaded them."

"So you're saying that this Peter fellow was the one who told Voldemort where we were living?" asked Harry as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. "Because that's the only way he could have found us, right?"

"Exactly!" Sirius exclaimed. "I figured that Voldemort would come after me to try and learn the secret. If he caught me, I wouldn't be able to tell because I wasn't the keeper."

"So did he catch Peter then and make him tell?" Harry asked.

"No," said Sirius angrily. "Peter willingly told Voldemort the secret. It seems that the little rat had been on his side for over a year. He leaked information that led to the deaths of many good people."

The two watched as Dumbledore cast a long and complex spell. When he finished, the house, James, Lily and baby Harry vanished. Peter then proceeded to tell Dumbledore and Sirius the secret. When he did, the house and the Potter family reappeared.

"That ends the first memory," Sirius said as the scene vanished and was replaced by a busy London street. "This is the memory that would have proven my innocence if I had of been allowed to show it."

Harry nodded and watched as a scared looking Peter ran out of an alley and into the street, closely followed by an angry looking Sirius. Peter tripped and tumbled to the sidewalk and came to a stop on top of a storm grate in front of a store.

Sirius ran up and jabbed out with his wand. Ropes flew out of the end and wrapped themselves around Peter.

"Why did you do it?!" screamed Sirius. "How could you tell Voldemort where they were?"

"I didn't.. I couldn't.." Peter stammered. "It wasn't my fault."

"You were the secret keeper, Peter," Sirius raged. "You were the only one who could have told him where they lived. They were your friends, how could you?!"

"You've never met him Sirius," whined Peter. "His power is unimaginable. I couldn't help it."

"Stop the act Peter," said Sirius as he punched the bound man, knocking him to the ground. "You're a traitor, and because of you, James, Lily and Harry are dead."

"They would have been dead sooner but for Remus following me," spat Peter quietly. "He kept me in hiding for weeks longer than planned. But really, you should be thanking Dumbledore. He knew, Sirius. He knew I was passing information."

Sirius's eyes opened wide in surprise as he heard this. Peter, seeing the surprise in his former friend's face grinned wickedly.

"You traitor!" Peter yelled loudly. "You betrayed James and Lily. How could you Sirius?!"

"Bastard!" screamed Sirius as he began to gesture with his wand.

But Peter beat him to it. Although he was bound, his wand was still in his hand, and he was aware enough of his surroundings to have noticed the exposed gas pipes at the front of the store.

"_Reducto_," cried Peter.

Harry watched in horror as the gas pipes exploded. People were thrown through the air out into the street where they lay not moving. Sirius had been quick enough to switch whatever spell he had been casting to a shield, so while he was thrown back by the blast, he was relatively uninjured.

As the smoke cleared, Harry looked around for Peter, but all he saw were a pile of ropes on the street and what looked like a bloody finger lying in the middle of them. The memory Sirius walked over to the ropes and picked up the finger. Holding it, he sunk to his knees and started sobbing.

Numerous pops signaled the arrival of uniformed wizards with their wands out. Upon seeing Sirius, a number of them let loose with stunning and binding spells, causing the memory to end.

"They blamed me for Peter's murder and the killing of all those muggles," Sirius said to Harry. "They also blamed me for telling Voldemort where your parents were hiding. They said I was the traitor."

"But, Dumbledore, he knew the truth," Harry said, appalled at what he had seen and heard. "Didn't he tell them?"

"I don't know if he did or not Harry," replied Sirius. "He could have kept me out of prison. Then you would have been able to live with me. But, I don't know. Something's not right. Peter said that Dumbledore knew he was a traitor, yet Dumbledore quickly agreed with me that Peter be made the secret keeper."

Harry had no words to respond with. In his mind, he was going over everything he had witnessed in the two memories, as well as his experiences for the past two years at Hogwarts and his life before that at the Dursley's.

"This next memory is different," Sirius said with a sad smile as he looked at Harry. "I thought you might like to see a happy moment from when your parents were alive."

Looking up, Harry was surprised to find himself inside a warm and cheery house. In front of him were his mother and father, Sirius and another man. Above and behind them hanging on the wall was a large glittery banner that read 'Happy 1st Birthday Harry!'

"This is my first birthday?" Harry asked with a catch in his voice.

"It is," said Sirius. "I thought that you might like to see it. This was the last time the three true Marauders were ever all together."

"The Marauders?" asked Harry. "Who are they?"

"The Marauders were the biggest pranksters and troublemakers at Hogwarts when we were there. Your father, myself, Remus there, and Peter were the Marauders."

Harry smiled as he listened to Sirius, and wiped away a tear as he watched a baby Harry happily tear away wrapping paper from one of his presents.

"Oh Sirius, you shouldn't have gotten him that," Lily scolded Sirius with a smile. "It's hard enough to keep him away from James's broom, but now he has one of his own."

"I felt it was my duty as godfather to make sure that Harry can follow in his old man's footsteps," the memory Sirius replied. "Harry will make a great quidditch player someday."

Baby Harry was laughing happily as he finally pulled a baby sized broom out of the mess of wrapping paper. Pulling himself up from the ground, he shakily stood and mounted the broom to the hoots of approval from James and Sirius. Pulling on the handle, baby Harry caused the broom to rise up and hover about a foot off of the floor.

"Don't worry Lily," memory Sirius said, "that's as high as it goes and it's not fast at all. It also has a cushioning charm all around it so that he won't crash into anything and won't hurt himself if he falls."

"Not that he'll need to worry about that," the man identified as Remus said. "It looks like he's a natural."

Harry grinned at Sirius as they watched baby Harry fly around the room avoiding furniture and people with ease.

"That's it Harry," said Sirius as the memory ended and the two found themselves back in the park. "I hope that will be enough proof that I don't want to hurt you."

Sirius wasn't ready for Harry's reaction though. As soon as he finished talking, Harry jumped over the pensive and tackled Sirius to the ground in a tight hug.

"I have a godfather, I have a family," sobbed Harry as he held onto Sirius tightly and cried into his chest.

"Easy there Harry," Sirius said in a voice thick with emotion as he hugged his godson. "Things will be alright now. For the both of us."

"But Sirius," Harry said, "where will we go? You need to stay hidden until we can prove your innocence."

Pulling himself and Harry up off of the ground and back into sitting positions, Sirius looked at his godson and smiled.

"I have the perfect place for us Harry," said Sirius. "If you want to come hide out with me that is. I have to warn you though, no one has lived there in years, and it was in pretty bad shape when I stopped there a few days ago. But, we can clean it up. And, you'll be able to use magic there if you want to."

"That sounds brilliant!" exclaimed Harry excitedly. "When can we leave?!"

"Right now if you'd like," Sirius said smiling as he stood up and helped Harry to his feet. "Just let me make things a bit easier for us first though."

With a few flicks of his wand, Hedwig's cage and the pensive were reduced to pocket size and were then placed into Harry's trunk which was then also shrunken down.

"Handy thing, magic," Harry said, grinning.

"That it is," agreed Sirius as he pocketed the shrunken trunk. "Now if you'd just hold onto my left arm, I'll apparate us there."

"Alright Sirius," said Harry. "I trust you."

Smiling, and with tears sparkling in his eyes, Sirius pictured their destination, and with a loud crack, they disappeared.

Taken from chapters two and three of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.


End file.
